


Working Night and Day

by Tempxtempx



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Gen, contains a bit of Kevin Falling Asleep in Inappropriate Places, mentions of painkillers and the possibility of addiction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-24
Updated: 2013-04-27
Packaged: 2017-12-09 10:33:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 9,184
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/773192
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tempxtempx/pseuds/Tempxtempx
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After 8.19 Kevin got into a car and ran with no particular destination in mind. After some panicking he ended up connecting with Krissy, Aiden, and Josephine, who let him stay in their house while he worked on translating the tablet.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> There's mention of torture but nothing shown (just quite a bit of screaming). Mention of possible painkiller addiction. Title from Driven By You by Queen. Enjoy!

Kevin woke up on the floor of the kitchen with a headache. Not that this was an uncommon occurrence; he'd gotten quite used to it, actually (headaches, not passing out on the floor), but this one felt different from the tension headaches he'd been fighting to ignore for weeks. For a moment he was simply confused - he sat up, rubbed his head, and looked around, finding that the table had been overturned and its contents had been spread out all over the floor. A candle had caught fire to the corner of a piece of paper and was starting to spread toward a larger pile of research. _Hope that wasn't anything too important_ , he thought, as he put out the fire before it did serious damage. That was when the memories hit, and Kevin stilled for a moment as fear, anger, and despair wrestled for control of his mind. Fear won, at least for the moment, and with it the thought of _I have to get out of here right now_. He started quickly gathering research documents and stacking them haphazardly on the floor. Then he ran into his room and grabbed a couple of boxes, crammed the papers into them and set the boxes on top of the counter. He went back into his room, pulled out his duffel bag, and started stuffing things into it. Pair of jeans, pair of jeans, armful of shirts, underwear, jacket. Socks, can't forget socks. His phone… no, best to leave it here so they couldn’t try to trace him. He put on the jacket that he’d had made a few weeks ago in case he ever had to leave. He couldn’t step off the houseboat without some sort of protection, since the sigils on the boat were the only thing preventing Crowley from finding him immediately. The jacket was something he’d thought of before his work became so urgent, a way for him to leave if necessary. The protection sigils were carved on the inside of the leather jacket, keeping him safe from Crowley. He hadn’t had a chance to try it before, but in theory the jacket worked perfectly well. Hopefully theory translated into fact.

Under his bed was a wooden box containing the sum total of his more valuable belongings - pictures, notes from friends - things that had no place in his life now but that he couldn't bear to let go, for nostalgia's sake. That went in his bag also, then he turned to the only picture that was actually framed and displayed openly. It was of him and his mom, taken on his fourteenth birthday. Kevin felt another wave of helpless despair upon focusing on the photo ( _Mom_ , dead) but suppressed it before it rendered him useless. Now was not the time for grief - that was for later. Right now he just had to get out, get somewhere safe. He wrapped the photo in one of his shirts and set it carefully down in the duffel. He returned to the kitchen and gathered all of his pills and packed those as well. Then the duffel and boxes went out to the car.

Garth hadn't been home in a few days and his car was gone, but since Kevin'd moved into the houseboat he'd kept another car "in case of an emergency." So Kevin dug the key to the car out from where it was hidden (the bottom of the car, next to the front left tire) and shoved his belongings into the passenger's seat. Then he went back inside to check he’d gotten everything.

The first thing that hit him was the absolute mess that he'd made of the houseboat. If he was leaving, he shouldn't leave it all out for Garth to deal with. He didn't deserve that kind of ingratitude, after he'd worked as hard as he had to take care of Kevin. So Kevin gave himself five minutes to straighten the place up as much as possible.

Five minutes isn't a lot of time, so mostly he just straightened stuff up and shoved things into drawers, put all of his extra belongings and research that he wasn't taking with him into his room. Then he took one last look around, willing himself to remember anything important that he was forgetting. He couldn't get rid of that nagging feeling in the back of his head that he was missing something important, but couldn't for the life of him figure out what it was. So he shut and locked the door behind him, then slid the key under the door. He wouldn't be coming back anytime soon, and hey, he could always pick the lock if necessary.

He walked briskly toward the car, in a hurry to be _away from here_ , get to somewhere safer, or at least a less obvious location, and somewhere he wouldn't be putting his friends in danger. He started the car and put it in gear and then backed up and started down the dirt path toward the main road. Throughout the process of packing, the work he was doing had given his emotions some time to die down. Once he had the relatively calm task of driving ahead of him, however, a sudden wave of panic and grief hit him, and an image came unbidden to his brain of what his mom must have gone through prior to her death. Crowley was a demon for a reason; her time with him must have been excruciating. Kevin temporarily forgot he was driving, and only remembered just in time to avoid running the car into the lake. He overcorrected and nearly ran into a bank of trees, but somehow only grazed the one. He kept his thoughts more firmly on the road as he turned onto the main street and headed south, speeding up quickly. He had to get out of here fast, and if there were any cops out at this time of night, well, he could just deal with that if the situation arose.

~

Naomi watched from the trees, unseen, as Kevin started the car. She felt a flash of pity for the boy, who was up against forces that he could never hope to defeat. His was a losing battle, and it really was unfortunate that the task had fallen to him, who would have been a good man and had a promising life if other forces hadn't intervened. Naomi ignored the part of her that wanted to berate herself for the role she was going to play in his downfall, the fact that it wouldn't be possible without her.

She was startled out of her thoughts when she saw the boy lose control of the vehicle, and quickly performed a miracle to prevent the crash that would have otherwise happened and seriously injured him. She needed him alive and working, at least for now, at least until he figured out a way to seal up Hell and passed the information onto the brothers.

Naomi watched as the boy drove away, and made a decision to not follow and see where he was going. By the time Crowley got impatient and demanded to know his location, she could truthfully tell him that he'd left his prior location and that she didn’t know where he was. Hopefully the resulting week or so of “searching” would buy him enough time that he could straighten himself out and translate the tablet fully.

After that, after reporting to the Winchesters, well.... Giving his location to Crowley and letting him have his way with the boy would ensure, if not Crowley's cooperation in the future, at least reassurance that he wouldn't try to kill her next time their paths crossed.


	2. Chapter 2

After twenty minutes of driving at a questionably safe speed, Kevin ran across Route 54 and decided that following the road west wouldn't be a bad idea. It should take him out of the state anyway, and maybe then he'd be able to take a rest and think about what the best course of action was.

The next eighty miles saw his entry into Kansas and consisted of him exceeding the speed limit by a good 15 mph and listening to a Best of Queen album that had been left in the car at top volume. As the CD came to a finish, Kevin took stock of his surroundings. He hadn’t been paying attention to much of anything for the past hour, hoping that the combination of loud music and the mostly empty road would enable him to zone out enough not think about anything serious. He was surprised to find that his gas tank was almost empty, so he pulled off at the next exit and followed the signs to the nearest gas station. He pulled up to a pump and then got out of the car to pay, but immediately sat back down again when he remembered.

He didn't have any money.

He hadn't thought to bring any from Garth's emergency stash in the houseboat, and his credit card was at his old house with…

_Mom_

The gas station faded from around him and he found himself standing in a dark room with only a few bare bulbs hanging down from the ceiling. His mom was sitting in a metal chair, her wrists bound to the arms of the chair. She was bent over and panting, her knees drawn up as if she was trying to curl in on herself.

"Your lack of cooperation is only hurting yourself, you know, and I _will_ get the information eventually. Tell me what I want to know now and you might get to see your son one last time before you die."

His mom put her feet down and sat up straight, glaring at Crowley and gritting her teeth. Her face was covered in bruises, but her eyes were still alive, and her voice was strong, if a little raspy, when she spoke.

"If you honestly think that I'm going to give you any way to get at Kevin, you don't know me at all."

"I have other sources. If you insist on being this difficult, then there isn't much reason to keep you around," Crowley said, surveying Kevin's mother with a look of distaste on his features. He turned and looked straight at Kevin, smiling in a way that served to make him all the more frightening. "Isn't that right, kid?"

The vision disappeared and Kevin realized that he was screaming. He was slumped against the steering wheel, and he clutched it as he tried to calm down and take deep breaths. There was a tapping at his car door, and Kevin banged his head against the wheel in fright, causing the horn to beep and further startle him. He turned to look out the door and saw an older lady looking at him, concerned. He blinked at her a few times and she stepped back, looking slightly wary. "You okay, hon?" she asked.

Kevin took a moment to collect his thoughts and sighed. "Not really," he said honestly. For some reason the confession got to him and he started sobbing uncontrollably. This seemed to fluster the lady a bit but she continued anyway.

"You look pretty upset. Are you safe to drive?"

Kevin didn't know whether she was being serious or was just trying to gauge whether he was drunk, but he guessed it didn't really matter. He sat up straighter, trying to appear more in control even though tears were still streaming down his face. "I'll be fine in a few minutes, I think," he said. "I've just had a really bad day and realized that I didn't have any money for gas and I guess it was the last straw."

The answer must have satisfied the woman, because she nodded and backed up a few steps before turning around and walking briskly back to her car. Kevin watched her go and then forced himself to think calmly about his situation. It took a few minutes for his head to clear but then he thought to check the glove box and found that Garth had stored five 20s in there. Kevin closed his eyes and sighed in relief. Thank goodness for Garth.

He took two of the twenties into the store in order to pay for gas. While he was there he decided he was hungry - the last time he'd eaten must have been breakfast. After pumping the gas he went back inside to see what kind of food they had to offer for cheap. He had just decided on some energy snack bars when he ran across the display of potato chips, and his brain was somehow alive enough to make the connection between potato chips and sodium and salt, and oh man he hadn't thought to bring any weapons with him whatsoever and here he was on the run from one of the most dangerous demons out there and how could he be so _stupid_?

Kevin grabbed the snack bars and then looked around for salt, but there wasn't any being sold in the convenience store. When he went up to the counter to buy his food, he asked the cashier whether there were any Walmarts in the area.

"There's one a bit over fifteen minutes away in Fort Scott if you're going east. If you're headed the other way, there's one half an hour from here in Iola," he replied as he handed Kevin his change.

Kevin thanked the man and then headed back to his car. He thought about heading to Fort Scott since it was closer, but realized that if he was going to continue going west it would be pretty counterproductive. Time to figure out where he was going, then. He thought about just holing up in a hotel somewhere, but realized that he didn't have the money to do so, and it was hard to get into hotels at his age, anyway. The next option would be to just travel around aimlessly until he found a run-down shack somewhere and set up camp there, but he didn't really feel safe (from human threats as well as demonic ones) sleeping in his car. Maybe he could stay with one of the hunters? He could always call Garth and ask for advice, but that would defeat his whole purpose in leaving the houseboat. No, best not to stay with the hunters. They were probably all on Crowley's radar. But staying with random strangers, assuming he could find someone kind enough to take him in for a while, was also out of the question. He couldn't explain his situation to them, anyway, and he'd only be endangering them. He had to stay with someone who could appreciate the risk they were taking by letting him stay and at the same time wouldn’t be a risk to him.

A thought popped into his head - _what about that girl Garth was supposed to be looking out for?_ Kevin had been around when Dean had called Garth and had listened in on the conversation. She sounded pretty competent, definitely could hold her own. And as far as Kevin had been able to figure, she hadn't done anything bad enough to warrant Crowley's attention, either. Maybe he could crash there for a day or two, at least until he figured out a more permanent situation.

Kevin reached over to the box on the floor of the passenger's seat and rooted around in it until he found the pad of paper that Garth had used to jot notes down on the day Dean'd called. Scribbled down was the information he'd been given:  
Krissy Chambers  
(620) 555-1105  
Conway Springs, KS  
He ripped the piece of paper off the pad and went back into the convenience store. He walked up to the cashier and asked, "Do you mind if I borrow your phone? I need to call someone."  
~  
Krissy was getting ready to go to bed when her cell started buzzing. She looked at the display which was showing a local call from a number she didn't know. She contemplated for a moment before picking up the phone. "Hello?"

"Hello, is this Krissy Chambers?"

"Yeah that's me. Who are you?"

"Okay, hi. My name's Kevin. I'm a friend of Sam and Dean Winchester's, and I've been staying with Garth for a while, he was supposed to come check on you? That's how I got your number, actually. I, um. Was wondering if I could drop by? I've been... my week, I mean. It's been a really bad couple of _months_ actually."

"Okay, slow down. Wait a minute. You say you know Dean and Sam?"

"Yeah, they've helped me out of some stuff, and I'm in the middle of doing some work for them."

"What kind of work?"

"Translation stuff."

"Okay and you're calling me because?"

"I, um. I've been doing translation for some things, and there's this demon out there who _really_ doesn't want me on the job. And I'm pretty sure he figured out where I was living, and so I needed to get out of there fast because I didn't want to put Garth in danger, and I really need to stay out of danger myself because this translation is important and I need to finish it, so I was wondering if I could just crash at your place for a few days? I know it's a lot to ask."

"Well, I'll have to check with Dean first, see if your story checks out - Kevin, was it?"

"No no no," the boy said quickly. "They figure out where I am, they'll just drag me back to where I was living in the first place. They think I'm making it up in my head but I was attacked a few hours ago but they won't believe me, and..." there was a sigh from the other end of the line.

"Look, I see how that must be a really difficult situation, but can't you agree it would be a bit weird for a trio of teenagers to house some old dude? It didn't really work out well for us last time we tried that."

"Last time you tried- wait, never mind. I'm not an old dude, though. I'm your age."

"Oh, well. I mean, I'd have to talk to Aiden and Jo before I agree to anything long-term, but they'll probably be okay with it. You can go ahead and come over if you like and at least spend the night tomorrow night; that should be fine. I'll talk to them later about you staying for longer."

"Okay, thank you so much. Uh, I should be able to make it there in...." he trailed off and she heard muffled voices, like he'd put his hand over the phone. "Three hours, give or take. I know that's a really weird time of night... hope I didn't wake you up by the way. Wow, I'm sorry. So I'll just see you in the morning maybe? I can find somewhere to hole up for the rest of the night."

"Nah, Aiden'll probably still be up in three hours anyway. When you get to our house you can just knock on the door. I'll tell him to expect you."

"Thank you so much, seriously. Um, I know about where you live, but I don't have your exact address."

Krissy relayed the information to him and then went downstairs in order to talk to Aiden about their guest. He assured her that he would have been up that late playing video games anyway, and she triple-reminded him to do checks to make sure the guy wasn't something of the creepy variety. Aiden was a great hunter, really, but sometimes that boy could focus on his games to the exclusion of everything else.

So she stuck a sticky note on the front door, just to make absolutely sure he wouldn't forget.


	3. Chapter 3

Not surprisingly, the Walmart was fairly deserted. Kevin spent as little time there as possible, anxious to get to somewhere a bit safer than his car. He bought only the essentials, trying to conserve money for when he'd inevitably need it later. His first purchase was a large container of salt. He grabbed two, just in case. Salt was important, and you could never have too much. Next he bought some window markers, figuring that was the best option for warding the car against demons without doing permanent damage. He headed to the checkout when he ran across a state map and decided to buy it. He asked the cashier if she could help him locate Conway Springs, and she pointed at a tiny dot to the southwest of Wichita. After he made a comment about how the map was going to be less than helpful once he got near Krissy's house, the cashier helpfully suggested that he buy a county map once he got closer to Wichita. He thanked her profusely and left the store, grateful that he'd not wasted money for a useless map.

Kevin exited the Walmart parking lot and drove until he found an abandoned field. There he drew a devil's trap on the car, taking care that the lines were thick and the symbols were properly drawn. Then he drew another one on the inside of the trunk, because double the traps, double the protection, right? After that, he got back on the highway and continued driving, singing along to the Queen CD that he'd put back on.

_I'm burning through the sky, yeah! Two hundred degrees, that's why they call me Mr. Fahrenheit!_

Maybe he should have bought some coffee or one of those five hour energy things while at the store. He was starting to get more tired, and kept zoning out for a few seconds at a time. He didn't have time to stop again, though - he wanted to get to the house. At some point in the past 30 minutes the urge to get to work on cracking the tablet had renewed itself, arguably stronger than ever, and he wanted to start translating as soon as possible. He settled instead for rolling the windows down in hopes that the cool air would wake him up and turning the music up louder to compensate.

Kevin hit Wichita in a little over 80 minutes due to his disregard for the speed limit, and stopped in another gas station for a map. He sat in his car and highlighted the route to Krissy's house, then started on his way again. Another half hour and he was pulling up to the house. He got out, taking one of his boxes with him, and walked up to the front door. He knocked, not wanting to wake up the whole house with the bell. A few seconds later, the door opened a crack and a pair of eyes blinked at him. "You Kevin?" the boy asked. Kevin nodded.

"There's a glass of water down there; drink it for me, would you?"

"What?" Kevin asked, wary and confused.

"Holy water. Standard procedure, gotta make sure you're not here to kill us or anything like that."

Kevin shrugged and picked up the glass. He noticed there was a line of salt sitting right in front of the door as well. He drank the water, which was actually quite refreshing since he hadn't had anything to drink in a while, and once he had finished it all the boy let him in. He stuck his hand out in greeting, and Kevin shifted the box to his left side and shook his hand. "Name's Aiden," said the boy.

"Nice to meet you; I'm Kevin. Do you have anywhere I can set up?"

"Well. There was this guy living with us a while ago but he's gone now. We thought we could put you in his bedroom, if you wouldn't mind. What do you mean, ‘set up’?"

"I've got about two boxes worth of paper, and I'll need a space to spread it out. I was working off the kitchen table and the wall before, so a bulletin board might be useful, but basically whatever space you could give me is great. Also, do you have coffee? I'm so tired right now."

"Yeah, sure. The room's got a desk. I don't know if we have a bulletin board or not; I'll ask around when everyone else wakes up. Maybe Victor kept one in the attic somewhere. We've got an extra foldy table that I can get for you in the morning, but you'll have to make do with the desk for tonight."

"That's fine. Sorry for being a bother. Thank you for taking me in, by the way. I'll try to stay out of the way as much as possible. I'll figure out somewhere else to stay soon. I just need a new place temporarily."

"No bother at all! Here, I'll take that up for you; you can go get the rest of your stuff from the car."

"Thanks." Kevin handed him the box then turned around to go back outside. He grabbed his duffel and the other box, locked the car, then went inside and up the stairs. He stood at the top a moment in confusion until he saw Aiden's head poke out from a room to his left. He walked in, dropped his stuff on the bed, then looked around. The room was fairly empty, just the general furniture but with nothing indicating that anyone had lived in there. The desk was a bit smaller than what he was used to working with, but he could deal with it until morning.

"Come on down and I'll start some coffee for you, then you can get to work," said Aiden lowly. Kevin followed him to the kitchen then sat down while Aiden started the coffee pot. Aiden pulled up a seat next to Kevin once the coffee was started and leaned against the counter. "So, what's your story?"

"What do you know already?" Kevin replied.

"Your name and the fact that you're staying with us at least for tonight, and that you're involved in hunting somehow."

"I'm a friend of Sam and Dean's. I translate things for them sometimes. I was working on a translation in Missouri when a demon came after me. He, well.” _Took my mom, killed her, tortured her._ He didn't say that. His mind clamped down on the thought and he refused to dwell on it. Instead he said, "He _really_ doesn't want me finishing the translation. I wasn't safe where I was, so I ran."

"Okay. I gotta know. Are we putting ourselves at risk by letting you stay here?"

"If I was going to be here long-term, maybe. But as is I'll only be here for a little while, I think. Krissy said she'd talk it over with you and... someone else... about whether I could stay longer than just tonight."

"Josephine. She lives here too."

"Ah." Kevin looked at the coffee, which wasn't done yet, then turned back to Aiden. "So, three teenagers in a house by themselves. How'd that happen?"

Aiden told Kevin about their revenge plot and about Victor, then went into short biographies of their lives. He explained how they'd thought it best just to stay in the house by themselves and hope that nobody noticed there wasn't any adult supervision before they turned 18. Kevin listened, a bit envious that they had each other to hang out with.

The coffee was close enough to being finished then, and Aiden took it out and poured it into a thermos for Kevin. "I think I'm going to bed now," he said. "We'll be up at 7 or so to get ready for school so try not to have any problems before then, but if you do I'm upstairs to the right of the staircase. The room with my name on the door."

Kevin thanked him for the coffee and the place to stay, then carried the thermos upstairs, drinking it as he walked back to the room. He carried one of the boxes from the bed to the desk, then started laying out papers in some semblance of order that he could continue working on the tablet.

~

When Josephine woke up in the morning, she checked outside her window in order to see what the weather was doing. What made her do a double take was the unfamiliar car parked in their driveway. She went downstairs and sat down with Krissy and Aiden at the table. "There's a car out front," she said, pouring herself some cereal.

"Yeah, about that," replied Krissy. "One of Sam and Dean's friends called me last night. He needed a place to stay, so I told him he could crash here for the night. I wanted to talk to you both before telling him he could stay any longer than that, but I'm not against the idea."

"I talked to him a bit last night," replied Aiden. "He said that we might be putting ourselves at risk if he stayed long enough."

"At risk from what?" Josephine asked.

"Demon," replied Aiden.

"He was living with that guy Dean sent to check on us, Garth," elaborated Krissy. "Said he got attacked so he ran."

Josephine thought about it for a minute. "I don't want to have to start this up again. At least, not until we graduate. I thought that's what we agreed."

"We're not really doing anything, though," Krissy countered. "We're just giving the guy a place to sleep for a while. We're not being active. And besides, he's helping Sam and Dean with something. That means it's probably important, and I don't want to stand in the way of that."

"But we could be putting ourselves in danger. And it's not even our fight this time." Josephine seriously wasn't convinced that letting the guy stay was a good idea.

"Well, he's probably sleeping right now, and we've got to get going soon anyway. How about we talk to him after school? If you don't want him to stay he doesn't have to, but at least hear him out first."

As much as Josephine didn't like the idea, Krissy's suggestion didn't really sound terrible, so she nodded her head and finished her breakfast. The trio left shortly after the conversation, and Josephine tried to push thoughts of their houseguest out of her head and instead focus on learning.

~

Somehow Josephine got elected to be the one to see whether the boy (Kevin, she reminded herself) was awake. She was informed that he was staying in Victor's old room then pushed up the stairs by Aiden while Krissy went to make more coffee ("He asked for some last night," Aiden had informed them). She stood a minute in front of the door before knocking softly, not really wanting to wake him up if he was sleeping. After a second, a voice replied with "come in" and she opened the door and entered the room.

Kevin was sitting at the desk, shuffling through a large stack of paper. The bed was covered in more papers, all spread out and most containing a somewhat illegible scrawl. There were some pictures interspersed in the mess, most of a stone with words in some strange language carved into it. A duffel was sitting precariously on the corner of the bed, only the post at the foot of the bed preventing it from succumbing to gravity and dropping onto the floor.

Kevin turned around and nodded at her. "Are you Krissy or Josephine?" he asked.

"Josephine. Krissy and Aiden are downstairs. We wanted to talk to you about some things, if you aren't too busy."

"Yeah, sure. Just give me a minute and I'll be right down."

Josephine left and went downstairs to the living room. Krissy was seated on the couch, feet propped up on the coffee table and turning her phone around in her hands. Josephine went to sit next to her. "He'll be down in a minute," she reported, then lapsed into silence. She could hear Aiden banging around in the kitchen and had to suppress a smile when she heard a loud noise and then Aiden shouting out in pain. "Run into the counter again?" she called out.

"No," came the reply in a manner that clearly indicated the opposite.

Kevin came down the stairs then, took a second at the bottom before he saw Krissy and Josephine, then sat down in the armchair opposite them. A couple seconds later Aiden came in carrying a mug, handed it to Kevin, then plopped down on the couch between Krissy and Josephine.

Kevin took a long drink of his coffee before setting it down on the table and looking at the trio. "Thanks for letting me stay the night," he said. Krissy nodded. "No problem. We were discussing this morning whether to let you stay longer."

"And?"

"Jo's got issues with the idea," Krissy replied.

Kevin turned to look at Josephine. He looked exhausted, which made her feel bad about her opinions, but at the same time... "It's not that I have a problem with you staying as much as it is that I don't want whatever's chasing you to find us."

"I'm taking measures to prevent that from happening, but you're totally right to be worried. If it makes you feel better, the moment I feel like I'm in danger again I'll leave for somewhere else. I'd just like to use my time here in order to work on the translation I'm doing. I work better in a safe environment, when I'm not constantly worried about being found."

"What measures are you taking?" asked Krissy.

"This jacket I'm wearing? It's got things carved into it. Sigils, that'll keep Crowley from finding me. If I stay here for an extended amount of time, I'd want to draw the sigils on your house, just for extra security. And also so I can take the jacket off; it's kind of warm." He smiled a bit.

"Crowley?" asked Aiden.

"The demon that's after me."

"And if you mark up the house, this Crowley won't be able to find you?"

"Not through the usual means."

"Well why wasn't wherever you were staying before marked like that?" asked Josephine.

"It was. But I was there a really long time and Garth was always going in and out. It wouldn't have actually been that difficult to find me just by observation."  
"Won't the same thing happen here?"

"I highly doubt he knows I'm here. He might still think I'm at the houseboat, or he might know that I left but not where I went. He wasn't following me that I noticed, though."

There was a minute or so of silence before Krissy spoke up. "Is everyone cool with letting Kevin stay here for at least the next week or two, or until whenever he feels like he's putting us in danger?"

Aiden nodded immediately, while Josephine thought about it until Krissy turned to look at her. She paused for a moment, biting her lip. "Fine," she said at last, and Kevin let out a breath of relief.

"Well then, it's settled," Krissy said. "Feel free to make yourself at home."

"Thank you so much. I don't have much in the way of money, but I've got some. Not enough to compensate you fully, but."

"No, that's totally fine," said Aiden. "You don't have to pay us anything. If you're working for Sam and Dean then you're free to stay here, no cost."

"What are you working on, anyway?" asked Krissy.

"I'd rather not say. Mostly for your protection. Something important."

"That's fine," Krissy said.

"Um, if you guys don't mind, I'd like to go ahead and draw the sigils now. Then maybe go and take a shower. I just really want to get out of this jacket."

They threw around ideas for a minute on what was best to write with, then decided that Sharpie was the best choice. Krissy told Kevin to feel free to mark up whatever of the walls he wanted; they could just paint over it later if necessary. Kevin insisted on doing all the work himself to make sure it was done right, so Josephine decided to get started on her homework. She hadn't been assigned all that much for the next day so she was done about the same time that Kevin finished sigil drawing. They all gathered in the living room again armed with holy water and a couple of devil's traps in case Kevin had messed up somehow with the sigils. He took off his jacket and after a few seconds of nothing happening said, "Well I guess that means I did it right. Try not to mess the sigils up at all. Uh, is there somewhere I can take a shower?"

"There's a bathroom attached to the room you're staying in; you can use that one," Josephine said.

Aiden took him upstairs in order to find shampoo for Kevin to borrow. He came back down a few moments later and asked about getting pizza for dinner. "Kevin wants just a pain half, no cheese. What about you guys?"

By the time the pizza arrived the shower had been off for a good five or ten minutes but they hadn't heard much movement from upstairs since. Kevin didn't respond when called, either, so Aiden was sent up to check on him. He came back down with a bemused expression on his face. "He's in the hallway up there. Sleeping. Tapped his leg with my foot and he didn't stir."

" _Seriously?_ " Krissy asked, her voice a combination of amusement and shock.

"No joke; come look for yourself."

The three of them went upstairs and, sure enough, Kevin was asleep, face flat on the floor, one arm trapped under his chest and the other covering his head. Krissy seemed to be trying to keep down a smile; Aiden's expression was still one of extreme confusion. "That can't be comfortable," Josephine whispered.

"No kidding," Aiden replied.

Krissy went to her room and came back with a blanket, which she threw over him. All three of them stared at each other for a moment. "He must have been exhausted. Do you think he even slept at all last night?" Krissy asked.

Aiden shrugged and after a pause Krissy shrugged back and headed back downstairs. Aiden followed. Josephine took a second to look at Kevin and wonder at how tired he must have been for the floor to be a viable sleeping place, then turned around to join the others.


	4. Chapter 4

Several days later at dinner Aiden brought up the topic that had been bothering Krissy for the last couple of days. "So, anyone seen our houseguest recently?"

Jo shook her head, and Krissy replied in the negative. "I haven't seen him since the first night, have either of you?"

"I talked to him after he woke up that night,” said Aiden. “You two were in bed, but I helped him bring a table up to the room. And he mentioned coffee again so I let him have the spare coffee maker so he'd have a constant source of it if he wanted."

"What do you think he's doing up there?" Jo asked.

"Translating, I'd suspect," Krissy replied.

"Without coming down at all? Has he even been eating?"

"Well we are at school most days for a good few hours," said Aiden. "Maybe he's sneaking food while we're not here?"

Krissy blinked. "That's creepy."

Aiden nodded. "Should we be concerned, or do we just let him do his thing?"

Krissy stood up. "I'll go check on him."

Jo patted her leg as she walked past. "Don't get sucked into there, never to return."

"Yeah, if you're not out in the next 30 minutes I'm going to assume that a one-way interdimensional portal has opened up in the room and that you're gone for good," Aiden added.

Krissy ignored the both of them and headed for Kevin's room. She knocked softly and when there was no answer opened the door enough to stick her head in. Kevin was sitting at the desk, head rested on top of his arms.

"Are you sleeping?" she asked quietly. She took his lack of an answer as a yes. She was about to turn around - she could talk to him later when he was actually awake - when she noticed the upturned pill bottle. She walked to his desk and picked the bottle up, examining the label. Painkiller, hmm. Krissy bent down to get more on level with Kevin and monitored his breathing. He was breathing normally, so probably the medicine and the sleep were unrelated, but still. Maybe she should talk to him about that as well, once he woke up.

She went back downstairs to grab her backpack. She passed Aiden in the hall and told him, "He's asleep. I'm just going to stay in his room until he wakes up." Aiden nodded and Krissy went back upstairs, set up shop on the floor in the corner of the room, and began to read through the play they were discussing in English class.

~

_The dimly-lit hallway was narrow, had dozens of doors to either side, and seemed to go on infinitely. He was searching for something, something important. He opened one door, was greeted with an empty room, shut it, and turned to its partner on the other side of the wall. That room, too, was empty, so he turned to the next door on the right and checked there. Also empty. He continued moving to his right because he was highly aware of creepy vibes emanating from the opposite direction, the feeling that something terribly evil lurked there. After checking several dozen rooms, all of which were empty, the sense of urgency left him and he became confused. What was he looking for again? He was about to give up the search when a voice came from the left side of the hallway._

_"You're headed in the wrong direction, boy. She's not over there." He turned toward the left and took a tentative step forward. "That's right, come on. Don't be shy. And be quick about it!" The voice faded and in its place came a prolonged scream, one that he was, unfortunately, all too familiar with._

No, not Mom, not again.

_He ran past quite a few of the doors, then slowed down once he was roughly back where he had started and began opening them one by one again, only to find empty rooms every time. A couple minutes of that, then the voice spoke again. "No, no, no. It's not one of those. Come on, closer!" Another scream punctured the statement and he started jogging towards the source. About three minutes later and the voice called out, "Now you've gone_ too _far." The scream this time came from right behind him and to his left. He opened the door and was treated to the sight of his mother lying on a wooden bench, curled up and clutching her side. He rushed to her and smoothed her hair back from her face. "Mom?" he asked softly._

_Then suddenly he was slammed against the wall, arms being held to the side of his head by no visible means. His mom stirred, but his head was wrenched to the side by some invisible force and he could no longer see what was going on._

_"You know, it's absolutely terrible that we always have to meet under these circumstances." Crowley emerged from the shadows on the opposite side of the room. "You know what would be nice? You could tell me where you're staying, I could let your mother go, and we could have a nice conversation, just the two of us. None of this pesky torture stuff."_

_"Don't listen to him, Kevin," his mom demanded._

_"By all means, do listen to me! You don't want your mommy to suffer more, do you?"_

_"Of course not!"_

_"Well then just tell me where you're living right now and this can all be over, just like that."_

_"Kevin, don't even think about it," said his mom in a voice that sounded strained._

_"Oh, shut up!" cried Crowley, annoyed._

_"Kevin, I'm serious. Don't-" Her warning was cut off by another scream, this one louder and longer than the ones previous._

_"Mom?" Kevin attempted to turn his head so he could see what was happening to her, but the force that was holding him still wouldn't let him move. He closed his eyes and gave a full-body struggle, which went on for a few seconds before he crashed to the floor._

Mom!

~

He opened his eyes and found Krissy leaning over him, clearly concerned. "Are you okay?" she asked.

He ignored her in favor of asking, "What are you doing here?"

"Are you okay?" she persisted.

"I'm fine. Bad dream, that's all. I should get back to work."

"No, you should talk. With me."

Kevin sat up and leaned against the desk. "About?"

"Well, originally I wanted to talk about the fact that we haven't seen you since you first showed up, but now I'm curious about the pills you've got there."

"Oh, that's just painkiller. I get headaches a lot."

"You look like you've been through quite a bit of it."

"Yeah well sleep deprivation plus significant stress equals headaches in my case. I need the pills to be able to concentrate on my work."

"That's what you've been doing this whole time, just work and pills? And coffee?" She looked pointedly at the coffee pot, which was surrounded by a small island of discarded filters.

"It's important work," Kevin replied, somewhat defensively.

"I checked the label on those pills. You know that stuff can be seriously addictive, right?"

"I'm just on those until I get the thing translated. Then I'll take a rest and get off the pills."

"You're being really unsafe here. It's not healthy. Surely you'd do better work if you were actually well-rested?"

"In theory, maybe. But I have to finish the translation as soon as possible. It's really important."

They sat in silence for a few moments, and Kevin was about to ask if she could let him get back to work, when Krissy said, "You know you've been crying the whole time we've been talking, right?"

Kevin brought his hand up to his face and, yeah, his cheeks were wet. "Oh," he said. "I'm sorry, that's really weird."

"How about instead of being sorry, you tell me what's wrong."

He debated with himself for a moment about whether he should tell her or not - it was awfully personal and he didn't want to make her uncomfortable - but the genuine concern on her face convinced him. "So Crowley, the demon who's trying to stop me from translating, somehow got a hold of my mom," he started. He told her about the visions he'd been having on the houseboat, how Sam and Dean had insisted that Crowley wasn't in his head, how he wanted to believe them but couldn't think of any other explanation. He told her about the conversation with Crowley that had sent him running from the houseboat and about the vision he'd had when on the road. He explained the contents of the nightmare he'd just experienced, and ended his story by telling her how scared the whole thing made him, how work was the only thing able to take his mind off the problem because it was something he could do to get back at Crowley. "I mean, it won't ever pay him back fully for what he's doing to my mom, but it might make me feel a bit better, at least. Less terrible, at any rate."

Krissy sat in silence for a couple of minutes, then spoke up. "You said that the one time on the houseboat he told you he'd killed your mom."

"Right?"

"Then how is he torturing her now?"

Huh. How had he not thought of that? But still - "So he lied to me, so what? He's got her now."

"I don't think so," she replied firmly. "Sam and Dean were right. He shouldn't have been able to get into your head. If he could do that, couldn't he find out where you were? Wouldn't he try scrambling your brain so you couldn't do the work at all? Why would he just sit back and taunt you?"

"But then what is all of this?"

"That medicine. It says on the label that it can cause hallucinations. Add that to the fact that you're running on caffeine and hardly sleeping, I wouldn't be surprised if you're just having really terrible nightmares."

"In the middle of the day? I was awake for two of them."

"Hallucinations. They happen when you're awake. And you're dead on your feet half the time, to hear you tell it, so you actually /could/ have been dreaming and just not realized it."

Kevin really wanted to believe her, mostly because that would mean that his mom was still alive and safe. But still... "What if you're wrong?"

"Just try this for me. Stop with the pills, only drink normal person amounts of coffee, and get a solid nine hours of sleep each night. If you keep having nightmares or visions or whatever after a couple of days of doing that, then you're allowed to worry again."

Kevin bit his lip. "Fine. Thanks for letting me vent to you, by the way."

"Sometimes it helps to be able to talk about things. You're welcome. Now please go to bed. On the actual bed, this time. And don't wake up until morning."

"Okay. Okay, I can do that. Right. Thank you."

"You're welcome. Sleep." She got up, grabbed her books, and walked out of the room, turning the light off as she left. Kevin changed into more appropriate clothes for sleeping and got into bed. He realized that this was the first time in over a week that he'd deliberately fallen asleep, and also the first time that he'd slept in a bed. He allowed himself a moment to contemplate that fact, then slipped into unconsciousness.

~

The first day and a half after Krissy talked to him was pretty bad. He started running a fever, felt sore and nauseous, and acquired an impressively massive headache. He recognized the symptoms fairly quickly as those of withdrawal and probably also a lack of caffeine, but his three housemates convinced him that it definitely wasn't a good idea to relieve the symptoms by going back onto the pills. He was soon feeling better, though, as the sleep he was getting helped make him feel a lot better than he was used to feeling, despite the unpleasantness of withdrawal.

Soon enough he was back to work translating. Krissy had been right, and he was functioning much better without having to lean on the pills in order to help him with his work. He also felt better in a non-physical way since he'd started eating dinners with the trio. Sometimes he even took time out (at Krissy's insistence, but still) in order to watch a movie with them. He hadn't done anything recreational for ages, and movie-watching was plenty to lift his spirits up.

The visions were gone, although he did still have the occasional nightmare about the things he'd thought his mom must have been going through. Thankfully they always mutated into other ridiculous dreams before very long, and he was able to recognize the nightmares for what they were.

~

Kevin finally finished translating the tablet. It was one in the morning (he'd stayed up late because he knew he was nearly done) and he accidentally woke up the whole house with his yell of excitement, except for Aiden who was still downstairs playing games.

Josephine and Krissy came in to see what was happening, and he gave them both a huge grin.

"You're finished?" Josephine asked.

"Yeah, finally!"

"Good news?" asked Krissy.

"Well, not really." Kevin's grin faded, but he still retained his general excitement. "I mean, Sam and Dean are going to have a seriously tough time of it, but at least it's out of my hands now."

"That's awesome!" Krissy said.

"I should probably leave now. I need to get back to the houseboat so I can talk to Garth and get in contact with Sam and Dean."

"No you don't," said Krissy firmly. "You're going to get at least eight hours of sleep first. You're not allowed to drive while tired."

"But-"

"Basic safety rules. You don't want to accidentally crash into another car now that you've got your job finished, right?"

"Fine. But I'm out of here in the morning."

"Sure thing."

The girls headed back to bed and Kevin began to pack everything back up. If he did it now he wouldn't have to in the morning, and he was too excited to go to bed right away anyway. It was an hour and a half later before he finally fell asleep, but he slept well, finally having the weight of responsibility off his shoulders.

~

Nine o'clock the next morning saw Kevin putting his protective jacket back on and stepping outside for the first time in over a week. He loaded his stuff into the car with the help of Josephine.

"I wasn't that stoked about you being here," she told him privately. "You might have picked up on that. Probably. It wasn't anything against you personally, though. I just wanted to let you know that."

"You were concerned with your safety, right?" he replied. "That's perfectly reasonable. I didn't hold it against you or anything."

"Thanks. I hope that everything works out for you."

"Thanks," he replied. “You too, by the way. Hope that you make it to graduation without anything else bad happening.”

He went back inside to say his goodbyes to the other two. He shook Aiden's hand, and tried to do the same to Krissy but she pulled him in for a hug instead. "I'm glad that you're doing better," she said. "Keep it that way."

"Thank you so much for letting me stay with you guys," he said. "I know that you said I shouldn't pay, but I've got $30 here, please take it. It doesn't even cover the amount of food I probably ate, so you don't have to feel bad about taking it or anything."

"No way," said Aiden. "We told you you didn't have to pay and we meant it."

Kevin let the matter drop pretty quickly. He'd decided earlier that if they didn't take the money he could just have Garth sneak it into the house next time he came to check on them.

He went out to the car and started the engine. He waved goodbye to his friends as he backed out of their driveway and started down the road.

Queen was playing from the speakers, he was well-rested for the first time in ages, and he didn't have to worry about the tablet anymore.

It was a good day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well this started when my bb Alison asked for chapter prompts for a fic of hers. I suggested Kevin running into the trio, and the idea kept bouncing around in my head so I stole my prompt back and wrote it myself. This was my first fic. Sorry if I got any Kevin or Crowley characterization wrong; I've only seen season 8 so far. Reviews would be much appreciated. Thank you for reading!  
> (Special thanks to Alison for letting my ramble about this. A lot. If you liked Kevin Falling Asleep in the Hallway you should check out her fic The Houseboat Chronicles. Chapter 2 has a lot of Kevin Falling Asleep in Inappropriate Places. fanfiction.net/s/9009753/1/The-Houseboat-Chronicles )


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